independence – autonomy – self-determination

The Assurance of Self

Kicking off our series of articles in gaelic Mary Ann Kennedy explores how the ability to embrace diversity is a positive sign of national identity. Mary Ann will be performing at Songs for Scotland in September.

I’ve said several times during this campaign that just because I’m a Gael, or a Gaelic-speaker, it’s not a given that I’m a Yes voter, despite some other people’s notions to the contrary. We are of course as diverse in our backgrounds, passions, convictions and opinions as any other group of voters in the referendum. But this thought has stayed with me a good while now, and I have come to the conclusion that there is some truth in the idea, albeit by a rather unusual path.

I grew up in Glasgow, on the South Side, in Pollokshields. A place in the 70s that was full of distinct and distinctive arrival communities – the Gaels, Highlanders and islanders among them. For years, I’ve often talked on stage or in conversation about being part of this multi-cultural Glasgwegian community – a fabulous place to grow up in as a bilingual kid. And then I began to question my own recollection of this time and place – I wondered if this was just a rather enhanced memory, embellished to make it relevant and entertaining, to give Gaelic, and me, our place in the big city and the big wide world.

For five-year-old Mary Ann, one of her greatest idols was Miss McNair in Primary 1 – new to the teaching game, and an inspiration to her class. It was this class that I had in my memory – a cohort where every second child spoke a different mother tongue, and where many cultures sat side-by-side. My pal Sumeera would come to Highland dancing with me, I got to sit in on the traditional celebrations for a Pakistani wedding. Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi , Irish, Polish, Mandarin, Gaelic – all of them were part of the soundscape of Pollokshields. Was it all wishful thinking on my part?

And then Facebook came out to play. My primary school teacher re-emerged as an FB friend via a completely different route to that of southside Glasgow. And in amongst the contributions to the ‘Oh no, is that really me?’ photies from another time, appeared a class picture. Not the ‘sit still and fold your arms’ type in the school gym, but gathered in the playground, against the Victorian cast iron railings looking out onto Melville Street from the infant department of Pollokshields Primary School – a snap on the hoof by Miss McNair. Twenty-five faces, smiling, happy – and affirming completely my memory of multi-culti Glasgow.

In this setting I and the other kids were brought up to appreciate, tolerate, understand, embrace, celebrate, investigate each others’ cultures and languages – by the teachers, by the mammies, by community energies and movements. Theirs was an overwhelmingly powerful influence, one that allowed Gaelic its place alongside all the others, where a belonging to an indigenous culture made it easier to appreciate others, and made it all the more important to accept others.

I want to be a part of a Scotland that does not fear diversity, that celebrates difference, and where a self-confidence in national identity and culture opens doors and brings down barriers. I believe it is only through that self-acceptance of all the things we are as Scots that then allows us to accept all the other possibilities for a new and flourishing nation state.

This assurance of Scottish self – Gaelic, Doric, Weigie, Glasgow-Irish, Caitness (sic), Shetlander – will surely lead to the artistic expression of joy in a world of new possibility, as happens so often when new (!) countries assert their place in the world. But it will allow us also to welcome in the people of different nationalities and backgrounds who will contribute to the success of this new Scotland, on whose skills and talents we will depend as much as on those who have already made Scotland their home.

It will also assert that this is no country that plays on fear, ignorance, fragmentation, religious intolerance, bigotry, the politics of ‘not in my back yard’.

So, whatever way they choose to vote on September 18th, thank you Sumeera, Mumtaz, Andrew, Alistair, Maggie, Vijay, Armin, Naseem and all the rest of you who were part of those Melville Street years. And thank you Miss McNair for retrieving an archive memory that allows me to look forward to September 19th and beyond as a Gael and a citizen of a multi-faceted and optimistic Scotland.

A great article. Thanks Mary-Ann. One of the things that scunners me most looking back at my years in primary school in Milngavie was the way the kids from the scheme were constantly put down for their Scots speech, and they in turn rejected kids like me as ‘snobs’ because we spoke English (or ‘properly’). Unfortunately we didn’t have any teachers aware enough to cut through the ignorance and cultural subjugation integral to our lives in that community, as in countless others the length and breadth of Scotland.

I moved to Finland 27 years ago (for love, not money) and immediately discovered a love for language. I now have a job that brings me into contact with people from all over Europe, and I love the multicultural nature of the European Union and its institutions. I prey Scotland will both vote YES and also shed the accumulated cultural garbage of monolingual prejudice that has blighted so many lives. It’s a big exciting world out here, and a renewed, culturally and linguistically confident Scotland will be a very welcome participant.

My primary school was in Fallin Nr. Stirling. In my class we had one English boy..(the lassies loved him)
HE WAS ONLY EIGHT AT THE TIME AND SOON ADOPTED THE IMPORTANT PARTS OF SCOTTISH DICTION. In our English classes, Miss Mactaggart made sure that “as we must speak English, we will do so more accurately than the English, with a Scottish accent.”
What she meant that we would pronounce our “h’s, r’s & br’s etc. Such as Hotel not Otel, FebRUary, not FebYOUary. LaBORatory , not LabRAtory etc. Diction and Dictation were part of her classes.